Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in the 2016 death of Maple Ridge man

A man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the death of a Maple Ridge man in 2016.

On March 2, Deane Sahanovitch, born in 1961, pleaded guilty in New Westminster Supreme Court to a charge of manslaughter with a firearm in the death of Jonathen Patko.

Sahanovitch was sentenced to four years and 172 days in prison and received a lifetime ban on owning firearms, and forfeited a semi-automatic weapon, according to the Port Coquitlam provincial court registry.

Just after 2 a.m. on Sept. 24, 2016, Ridge Meadows RCMP responded to a report of shots fired in the area of 243rd Street and 102nd Avenue.

When police arrived, they found a 32-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds.

Patko was taken to hospital, but died as a result of his injuries.

At the time, one neighbour said she heard three or four shots.

“It was really loud, it sounded like bear bangers at first,” she added.

Watching out the window, she saw three vehicles drive away – a truck and two SUVs.

She said police arrived on the scene within five minutes, and she immediately heard and officer say, “Man down.”

The victim was laying on the sidewalk outside his home on a residential street.

Another woman who lived across the street said she was in a deep sleep when she heard two shots. She looked out her window and could not see, but she did hear a woman screaming.

“IHIT investigators, supported by the Ridge Meadows RCMP, worked diligently in order to secure the evidence in this investigation,” said Cpl. Frank Jang of IHIT on Tuesday.

A suspect had been charged with murder in 2016, Jang said in an IHIT news release. Sahanovitch, this month, pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, according to the release.